The invention relates to an apparatus for automatic quantitative analysis, by cataphoretic process, of the amount of protein, for example, which is contained in a blood serum.
A specimen film is obtained by applying a blood serum on a cellulose acetate film at a given pitch, disposing a pair of electrodes on the opposite sides of the serum applied, energizing the electrodes to fractionate the serum components, which are then dyed, followed by decolorizing unnecessary portions and drying, thus producing a specimen film carrying a plurality of fractionated patterns of the blood serum distributed lengthwise thereof at a given pitch and each extending crosswise thereof. Subsequently, the specimen film is made clear by applying a clearing liquid such as fluid paraffin or decalin to the film or immersing the film into such a clearing liquid, and the film is disposed in a densitometer to provide a quantitative analysis by determining the density of the fractionated patterns of the individual specimens.
The usual practice has been to employ a manual operation for making the specimen film clear and for all other operations required for the determination, resulting in a very inefficient operation. In particular, a commerically available densitometer permits the determination of only up to eight specimens at one time, so that the specimen film had to be cut into sections, each including eight specimens, which added further difficulty to the overall operation.